Nice work if you can get it

At work we have been going through some staffing and structural changes. Some long-time employees have transferred to other departments, and their duties have been shifted to other people. Some folks are better trained than others.

Yesterday, a man came through the office to empty the trash. We chatted pleasantly, and I watched as he trailed a large plastic garbage bag behind him. He picked up the black trash bin beneath my desk, dumped the contents into the plastic bag. Then he picked up the blue bin, where I'd deposited recyclable papers and plastic, and dumped the contents into the same plastic bag. I watched as he went from cubicle to cubicle, dumping all our carefully separated trash and recycling into the same plastic bag.